The Russian National Ballet Theatre is a classical ballet company based in Moscow, Russia that performs classical ballets and travels worldwide to dance.

The repertoire features many famous ballet masterpieces like: “Swan Lake,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Don Quixote,” “Giselle,” “Carmen,” “La Bayadere,” “The Nutcracker,” “Cinderella,” “Coppelia,” “Les Sylphides,” and “Romeo and Juliet.”

“Romeo and Juliet Act II”:

I had very high expectations of Romeo and Juliet because it was my all-time favorite ballet. The storyline is intense the composer, Sergei Prokofiev, has conducted a beautiful masterpiece, and the pas de deux between Romeo and Juliet during the balcony scene is breathtaking to watch.

Right when Romeo and Juliet started, I was immediately disappointed. They did Act II, I had no idea they were going to do this, so they didn’t include the balcony scene, and the music was not the original music by Prokofiev. Without the classical music, it was not right to me.

I thought that the dancing was very exquisite, and the costuming was so stunning from stage, but the fact that they cut out half of the ballet and didn’t include the music was a deal breaker for me and I was not fond of this version.

“Carmen”:

I was so eager to see “Carmen,” because I have never seen it before. Off the bat, the music was very fierce and the dancer playing Carmen was perfectly casted. She was very flirtatious and intense on stage, which was perfect for her role because she is supposed to act very powerful. I was really pleased with the all the dancers and the sharp music conducted by Rodion Shchedrin.

The dancer portraying the role as the “bull” stood out in my eyes. When she danced you could see the intensity in her eyes almost as if she had been a real bull. She was such a gorgeous dancer and had an incredible stage presence. I will see this company again when they come back next year, because they come every year around January, February time. Last year they performed, “Cinderella” I cannot wait to see them again because they dancers we’re absolutely amazing!

In conclusion, I definitely recommend seeing this company because they are amazing, even though I wasn’t that pleased with Romeo and Juliet, but I tend to be very biased and have strong opinions about ballet.

If you want to go see a great show, come see this company to get the full experience of a real professional company.